[EDLING:715] Grammar, etc

[Terry Locke]

Dear linguists

A project I have been involved with in recent years has been the development
and editorial coordination of the peer-reviewed, online journal: English
Teaching: Practice and Critique. (Check out:
http://www.soe.waikato.ac.nz/english/ETPC/index.html)

I have been involved lately, with colleagues at York University (England) on
a systematic review project investigating the impact of teaching grammar on
student writing. (See http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/educ/projs/eppi2003), and
that has prompted me to plan a double issue planned for December 2005 and
May 2006 on the theme of "Knowledge about language in the English/literacy
classroom". As you know, it is a theme that has been addressed many times
before in a range of contexts. I guess you could call it a perennial.

Here is the rationale for the double issue as it appears on the "Current
Issue" page of the journal right now, i.e.
http://www.soe.waikato.ac.nz/english/ETPC/Current.html

Rationale: The aim of this double issue of English Teaching: Practice and
Critique is to revisit, historically situate and extend a number of current
debates on the broad topic of knowledge about language in the
English/literacy classroom. It is hoped that contributors to this major
enterprise will write out of a number of educational settings, in particular
the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, South
Africa and perhaps one or more European countries.

The issue goes way beyond the perennial issue about the teaching of grammar
and its effectiveness/ineffectiveness as in relation to literacy
development. In the broad sense intended here, the debates can be
represented by the following questions:

€ What is meant by "knowledge about language"?
€ Whose knowledges are we talking about when we refer to "knowledge about
language"?
€ In what ways is "knowledge about grammar" subsumed under the term
"knowledge about language"?
€ What relationships exist (as productive or non-productive) between the
development of linguistics as an academic domain, and educational policy and
practice in respect of the presence of "knowledge about language" in the
English/literacy classroom?
€ What (if any) justifications exist for the inclusion of "knowledge about
language" in an "intended" curriculum as knowledge worth knowing for itself?
€ How is knowledge about language affected by the technologised nature of
its object?
€ Put another way, how does metalanguage need to change under pressure from
the increased digitising and graphicisation of texts and text-based
practice?
€ Are there any sustainable arguments for a positive relationship between
knowledge about language (however understood) and increased effectiveness in
some aspect of textual practice (reading/viewing or production)?
€ What is the relationship between metalanguage and metacognition?
€ What pedagogical frameworks or approaches appear to render "knowledge
about language" effective or ineffective as a component of literacy teaching
and learning?

Potential contributors are not, of course, expected to address all of these
questions. However, these questions should be thought of as providing
parameters for the debate we are proposing with this double issue. There is
no restriction on the type of academic inquiry represented by anticipated
contributions. And, as always, teacher narratives are welcome.

The aim of the double issue is to provide (ambitiously, I admit) a fairly
global perspective on the topic.

An idea for this issue is to make available to contributors an edited
version of an article by Dick Hudson, written out of the context of England,
which tracks the relationship (as he sees it) between the development of
linguistics in the universities and the teaching of grammar (narrowly put)
or knowledge about language (broadly put) in the school classroom.  A
version of this article is to be published by the Journal of Linguistics.
However, we have made a somewhat different version of it available to
readers of the double issue via a pdf which is already hosted on Dick's own
website. (See http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/engpat.htm)

Kind regards

Terry Locke


On 23/3/05 3:57 AM, "Francis M. Hult" <fmhult at dolphin.upenn.edu> wrote:

> Tanja,
>
> You might find this article useful.
>
> Tarnopolsky, O. &  Kozhushko, S.  (2003). Acquiring Business English in a
> Quasi-Natural Business Environment: A Method of Teaching Business English to
> Students of Business and Economics.  Working Papers in Educational Linguistics
> 18 (2):55-88.
>
> You can get it online here
>
> http://www.wpel.net/v18/v18n2.html
>
> It's not about e-learning specifically but it describes a curriculum for
> teaching business English.
>
> Francis
>
>
> Quoting Tanja Angelovska <tanja_angelovska at yahoo.de>:
>
>>
>> Dear linguists
>>
>>
>>
>> At the moment I am working on my Master Thesis titled “E-learning: how to
>> focus on the functional aspect of Business English”
>>
>>
>>
>> Taking into consideration the typical structure of business English I want to
>> focus on some form-function opposition, as business English courses tend to
>> focus on the functional aspect of language. I will concentrate on the form
>> and function as far as tense/aspect is concerned as the business people tend
>> to explain the function of eg. the future tense much more in detail than
>> "ordinary" English teachers.
>>
>>
>>
>> I need your help in suggesting me some new literature /articles connected
>> with this topic and if possibly some suggestions on what other parts I can
>> focus.
>>
>>
>>
>> Hopefully some is familiar with this.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks a lot in advance. Please send all answers on my email:
>> tanja_angelovska at yahoo.de
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Best regards
>>
>> Tanja Angelovska
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------
>> Gesendet von Yahoo! Mail - Jetzt mit 250MB kostenlosem Speicher
>
>
>

--
Terry Locke
Associate Professor: English Language Education
Arts and Language Education Department
School of Education
University of Waikato
Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, NZ.
Ph: 64 7 838 4500 Ext 7780
Fax: 64 7 838 4555
Coordinating Editor: English Teaching: Practice and Critique
Journal Website: http://www.soe.waikato.ac.nz/english/ETPC/
Personal Website:
http://edlinked.soe.waikato.ac.nz/staff/index.php?user=locketj